1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to sensors used in the electrical treatment and monitoring of human and animal bodies. More specifically, the invention relates to wearable garments that allow sensor devices to be pressed selectively against the skin of the wearer when it is desired to obtain medical information or to apply treatment by contact with the surface of the skin.
2. Description of the Invention
Sensing and treatment devices for contacting the surface of the skin are well-known in the art. It is also well-known that such devices require tight-fitting, e.g. elevated unit pressure, contact with the skin. However, the incorporation of such sensors into wearable garments that provide for applying sensors to the skin of a wearer with selective and/or variable pressure, is not well-known.
In the prior art, sensors are either adhered directly to the skin of the wearer using well-known types of adhesive materials or, they are tightly strapped to the user""s body using suitable straps or bands having buckles or other clasping mechanisms adapted to the purpose. Such prior art apparatus for affixing sensors to the skin of a user do not take the user""s comfort into consideration by allowing the pressure of the sensor against the skin to be increased easily only when the sensor is in use.
The present invention overcomes these problems and limitations of the prior art by allowing sensors to be pressed against the skin of a wearer selectively, only when needed or desired. The sensors are mounted on the inside of a wearable garment, and the garment incorporates circumscribing bands that can be reduced in diameter, selectively, to press the sensors against the skin of one wearing the garment.
The present invention discloses a wearable garment that incorporates one or more skin-contacting sensor devices positioned to contact the skin surface of a user wearing the garment. The wearable garment of this invention incorporates one or more bands of flexible material that circumscribe portions of the wearer""s body with at least one sensor device positioned between the band and the wearer. The circumference of the band can be shortened from a first dimension, which loosely circumscribes the desired portion of the wearer""s body, to a second, lesser dimension, which securely presses the sensor into contact with the wearer""s skin.
In accordance with this invention, the band may be tightened about the wearer""s body either by drawing the ends of a loop about the body in the nature of a drawstring or by shrinking the overall length of the material of a continuous loop as by passing an electrical current through a continuous loop made of shape Memory Alloy Wire. In this regard, the band may be loosely incorporated into the body of the garment in the well-known manner of a drawstring or, the band may be integrated into the body of the garment as by forming a desired portion of the fabric material from different fibers such as fibers comprising Shape Memory alloy. To utilize the electrically responsive shrinkage characteristics of shape-memory alloy material in a convenient manner, the garment may be provided with means for supporting or otherwise carrying with it, a portable electrical power supply such as a battery.
Further in accordance with this invention, it may be noted that any treatment or monitoring equipment that relies upon the sensors carried by the wearable garment, may incorporate internal features such as a programmable microprocessor to activate a band formed of shape memory alloy, at a predetermined rate or in accordance with a predetermined schedule.